Climbing Mountains Or Hills
by zero-damage
Summary: Persona 4. Rise, Kanji, Naoto, and the 2012 Yasogami High camping trip.


_A/N: Another older story. Rise-Kanji-Naoto, as friends or more depending on your perspective. (It's possible there wasn't supposed to be a 2012 Yasogami camping trip; please suspend your disbelief if so)  
_

* * *

"I cannot see the point," muttered Naoto, draped awkwardly across a wooden chair in Rise's room, "of climbing a mountain just to pick up litter."

Kanji was sprawled on Rise's bed, swimming in a sea of pink and white he really didn't care for. How many cushions did a girl need? "S'not really a mountain. More a steep hill."

"I rephrase my statement: I cannot see the point in climbing a hill to pick up litter either." Naoto sounded just a little more pissy than normal. Probably the weather; it was only June, and the heat was already creeping through the gaps in the blinds and the cracks in the floorboards. Summer in Inaba had never been much fun, and the school camping trip ranked even lower. _Especially_ after last year. The Galactic Punt to the head from Chie had been bad enough - much as Kanji might've deserved it – but Morooka's technicolour yawn in the river had sealed the deal.

Kanji looked at Naoto, an unhappy tangle of arms and legs decorating the wooden chair, and shrugged. "If you'd quit wearing a dress shirt and tie in the middle of a heatwave, y'might feel better."

Naoto's lips were half-formed around a response when Rise breezed back into the room, six cans of soda bundled in her arms. "Jeez, you better appreciate this. I walked two minutes down the street and I'm _disgusting_." Four cold cans ended up dumped square on Kanji's chest, and Rise tossed another to Naoto with a sly smirk. "So...you guys get up to anything while I was gone?"

The most Kanji could manage was a grunt. In this heat, embarrassment took too much work. Naoto made a token gesture - "Don't be ridiculous, Rise-chan" - but it was pretty damn feeble.

Rise giggled and cracked open a soda. "We really need to start packing. The trip's tomorrow." She was perched on the desk next to the chair, and it might've even been graceful if she hadn't been Rise and if she hadn't just swept one arm towards her wardrobe so wide that Naoto had to duck.

Dammit, they'd already gone over this twice. "It's a camping trip," Kanji said with a sigh. "Nothing to pack."

"Yeah, you said that earlier." Rise hopped down from the desk, tapping a finger against Naoto's head on the way. "So did you, Naoto-kun, before you even start." In two steps she was beside the wardrobe, flinging open the door on a rainbow of colours that made Kanji wince. He'd been in this room more times than he could remember and his eyes probably hated him for it.

Naoto was frowning. Which wasn't unusual. "You're being impractical."

"I'm not taking that much! Just the essentials - bathroom stuff, two changes of clothes, my MP3 player, a spare pair of shoes, hair products..." She paused. "There were a few other things, I think."

"Yeah. _Essentials_." Kanji folded his arms behind his head and stretched out his legs. "Gonna be fun watching you fall backwards down the hill with the weight. You'll learn for next year," he added - then remembered there wouldn't _be _a next year. Rise was going back to work in July.

All three fell silent. Rise's gaze dropped to a nondescript spot on the bedroom floor and Naoto just stared toward the blinds. Kanji almost looked away himself, but focused on trying to read Rise's expression instead. For someone so eager to go back, she didn't look happy.

"You guys'll have fun without me, don't worry," she said, lifting her gaze and forcing a smile.

Wanting her to stay was selfish, but screw it, so was he. "You don't have to go back. I'd, uh, I'd miss you, y'know? So would Naoto."

Naoto kept her eyes on the window. "…I understand, to an extent. Your work as an idol is important."

Naturally, the detective prince had to get it. Kanji was apparently the only one who couldn't - and the one who'd get left behind.

"But what you have in Inaba…" Naoto continued, "could outweigh the desire to leave."

"It's not that easy." Rise twirled her hair in her fingers; her usual nervous twitch. "I already told the company I'd go back. And I want to, you know? C'mon, Naoto-kun, you love your job too."

"Yes. But I have reasons to stay, for now."

"I'm not goin' anywhere," Kanji said, and didn't add that he was probably the only one.

Rise looked back at him, a sad sort of smile playing over her lips. "Don't worry, Kanji-kun. Ten years from now you'll be running your own store. You won't need us around." She rolled her eyes. "I'd say you'd be married with kids, but you'd have to stop being scared of girls first."

"I'm fine with girls!" Kanji snapped - then Rise quirked an eyebrow at him, and he lowered it to, "I'm fine with _you_."

She shook her head. "I don't count," she said, then raised a finger. "And before you say anything, Naoto-kun _definitely _doesn't."

Naoto raised an eyebrow in turn, then shrugged.

Whatever. Hanging out in Rise's room and being able to keep a conversation going with Naoto without stammering had to count for something, right? Kanji figured he'd come a long way in the past year. The girls at school still freaked him out, but the feeling seemed to be mutual - and things with the guys weren't much better.

He grimaced, fidgeting against the bed. "Yeah, well. Maybe I ain't interested in that stuff anyway."

"Boys, then?" Rise shot back, and Kanji lobbed a fluffy cushion at her head.

* * *

Disliking a mountain simply for existing was irrational and utterly contradictory to her usual nature. The emotion would thus have been troubling, if Naoto hadn't been spending the day objecting to everything arbitrarily. The list so far included but was not limited to: grass, trees, rocks, litter, and the sun currently beating down on her head.

And the mountain. _Particularly _the mountain.

"Take the cap off, Naoto-kun. Your brain's probably overheating," Rise chirped at her from atop a nearby rock, and it took all of Naoto's formidable self-discipline not to hurl an empty soda can.

"I will do no such thing." Not that she was overly attached to a simple object. That would also have been entirely illogical. She quickly raised her hand to her head and smoothed down the fabric; simply to ensure it looked presentable, of course. "Are you actually going to do any work?" she asked Rise, who hadn't moved in the last fifteen minutes. "Or would you prefer to lie on a rock all day?"

"Hey! I picked up a bunch of litter this morning!"

"And you've done nothing but sit idle this afternoon. You're no help at all."

Rise didn't so much respond as let out an indignant squeak - so Kanji, standing nearby and stabbing at pieces of paper with a stick, answered in her stead. "C'mon, Naoto. She busted ass earlier."

Naoto was about to throw out another deeply cutting retort when a sudden breeze whipped through the trees. They were on relatively high ground, so increased wind speeds were to be expected: knowledge which offered no comfort when the wind blew off her cap, and whisked it over a nearby slope and down to the river flowing at the base.

_Oh no. No, no._Naoto launched into a half-run, half-tumble down the rocky slope, skidding to a halt on the sandy bank- and watched as the cap caught on a pile of flotsam halfway across the water.

"Serves you right!" called Rise from above, voice sing-song and thoroughly irritating.

Kanji loped down the slope in a few easy strides and looked out over the river. "Damn. That sucks."

Naoto raised a hand to her head again, smoothing down her hair this time. How was she supposed to get the cap back? Another gust of wind would knock it into the river, and the current was flowing fast. There was mud on the flotsam too, she could see it from the bank. The cap was going to be filthy. This was _disastrous_.

"You know, you could just get another one." Rise had made her way down and snaked one arm around Naoto's shoulders.

"Don't be ridiculous." A raft. She could build a raft. There was sufficient debris nearby. Hold on, there was no rope. Perhaps she could tie a few shirts together and ask Kanji to stand on the opposite bank, they could swing a makeshift line into the flotsam and try to - - no, no, too risky. Holding out a branch certainly wouldn't work, her arms were too short. The tent poles could be used to fashion a bridge - one that would easily hold her weight if correctly constructed - but the teachers would never permit her to - -

Wait. The water really wasn't that deep, was it?

"I'm over-thinking this," Naoto informed the river.

"Ain't no different from normal." Kanji laughed, a low chuckle in the back of his throat. "I got an idea, though."

"That won't be necessary. I've already considered all possible solutions," Naoto said, then broke away from Rise and waded into the river - immediately stifling a yelp when she realized just how cold the water was and how unpleasant it felt to have your shoes fill up with silt. Worse still, the river was soon up to her knees.

"Uh...Naoto?"

Naoto elected to ignore Kanji, because she was now only a half-meter from the pile of rocks and wood. Her cap sat neatly perched on top. Occam's Razor: sometimes, the simplest solutions really were the best. Pushing through the current was difficult, but she finally made it close enough to reach up for the cap - which immediately disappeared over her head, hooked on the end of a tree branch.

Naoto swiveled round with a splash. Kanji was still standing on the riverbank: branch in one hand, cap in the other.

Longer arms. Of course.

"Tried to tell you," he said, looking a little sheepish - but when Rise cracked up laughing he soon followed suit.

"I hate you both," Naoto stated flatly, up to her waist in river water, "and I hope you fall down the mountain."

"Hill," Kanji pointed out, twirling the cap in his hand.

* * *

By nightfall, Rise _almost _felt bad for Naoto, who was shivering against her sleeping pad and generally looking soggy and miserable. But only almost - firstly because she'd been a jerk earlier, and secondly because she was making Rise's sleeping pad damp too.

"Take the track pants off, Naoto-kun," Rise said, with an exasperated wave in Naoto's general direction. "Just till they dry! You're wearing shorts anyway."

Naoto's face flushed dark red - no surprise there - and she stared firmly at the tent floor. "Absolutely not." Her hand moved up to tip down her cap, until she realized it wasn't there.

Rise smirked. "Missing your hat?"

"…No."

"_Riiight_. See, that's what happens when you never take it off."

"I'm not wearing it now."

"Because it's got mud on it," Rise pointed out. "And because I stuck it on top of the tent pole to keep you from wearing it anyway."

With a small noise of displeasure, Naoto folded her arms and glared at her socked feet. Rise flopped down next to her, content to have won the argument. Neither of them spoke; all Rise could hear was the wind in the trees, and muted rustling and muttering from the other tents.

"You're leaving next month," Naoto eventually said.

Rise swallowed. "Maybe. I don't know."

"I thought the decision was made?" There was a strange look on Naoto's face. Curious, but mixed with something less familiar. _Someone_, Rise thought, _cares about this a little more than they let on_.

"You don't need me around, Naoto-kun," she said. "You've got Kanji-kun. You guys are like this anyway." She held up two fingers, one curled round the other. And it was true. For all their combined clumsiness and prickliness – and the awkwardness it caused - Kanji and Naoto _got _each other. They could have something even more if they'd just quit being awkward pandas - something Rise had spent considerable effort trying to engineer, if only to distract herself from the fact that of their little group, she might just be the third wheel.

Naoto looked at the twined fingers, then grabbed Rise's hand and wrapped a third finger around the two. "This way is better."

She pulled back her hand and looked away a moment later, but Rise still smiled. Naoto looked like she wanted to say something else then – but it was cut off by the sound of branches breaking nearby, followed closely by a thud and a _lot_ of enthusiastic cursing.

Naoto and Rise glanced at each other, then at the front of the tent. "Kanji-kun?"

"Yeah! S'me. Can I come in?" Kanji was trying to whisper – but, being Kanji, was doing a lousy job. "Shit...that frickin' hurt..."

"If you stop making a racket, sure," Rise said. She shone the torch toward the front flap of the tent, just as Kanji's head poked through.

"Ow!" he hissed. "Don't shine that in my eyes, dammit!"

With a quiet sigh, Naoto leaned back to rest on her elbows. "You aren't supposed to be on this side."

"Yeah, I know. But the kids I'm sharin' with..." He looked downcast. "S'like the grave in there. I think they're scared of me. Keep movin' so far to the other end of the tent, they're gonna roll down the damn hill."

Rise ruffled his hair, earning a small growl in response. "Kanji-kun, how could anyone be scared of you? You're like a puppy."

"Shut it, Rise." He crawled into the tent, almost knocking down the metal pole. "Uh...mind if I stay?" It came out as a rapid mumble and he was blushing at the same time. "Since you guys don't have a tent-mate. I mean, I don't wanna get you into trouble, or, or interrupt or anythin'."

"I dunno, Kanji-kun, you're totally barging in on our make-out session," Rise said, face dead serious - earning an immediate spluttered denial from Naoto and an even deeper blush from Kanji. "Kidding! If you keep quiet, you can stay. Kashiwagi's probably hopping all over the guys' side anyway," she added, with a shiver.

Naoto frowned. "A distressing image." She tipped her head. "But unfortunately accurate. Although this contravenes school regulations, I doubt Kashiwagi-sensei will notice your presence provided you return to your original tent before everyone else awakens."

"Basically," Rise said, "Naoto-kun agrees with me."

Naoto nodded. Kanji grinned back and flipped over onto the sleeping pad, so he was lying on his back and looking at the top of the tent. "Beats rolling down a hill," he said, as Rise turned off the torch.

The moonlight was spilling over the canvas, casting shadows of leaves from the trees above. The light moved across the three of them, packed close together, and Rise both saw and felt Naoto start shivering again.

"You cold?" Kanji asked. "And why're your legs still damp?"

"Be quiet," Naoto mumbled, and wrapped her arms tight around her jacket. Rise just smiled to herself.

She wasn't sure how much time passed - ten minutes, maybe twenty - but eventually Naoto quit moving so much and Kanji started breathing deeper and slower. The shadows were still moving, and when she glanced over he was fast asleep, mouth half open with his arms behind his head. Naoto was on her side, head tucked against his chest.

Rise rolled over, pressed against Naoto's back, and stretched one arm across her to grab the edge of Kanji's shirt. "I don't really want to leave, y'know," she whispered. Easier to admit it in the dark, but her voice was still tinier than she'd expected. "It's weird…six months ago I wanted it more than anything. I know we had the team then, but I always had to stay behind." She paused, swallowing past the sudden tightness in her throat. "I – thought I didn't really have real friends, not like the senpai were. It's different now."

No response. Rise pushed herself up on one elbow. "Naoto-kun - are you asleep?"

Naoto responded with a small half-groan, half-grunt.

_Great_. Rise let out a quiet sigh and tried not to think of anything beyond right now: the rustle of the leaves outside, Naoto still shivering slightly against her, and the fabric of Kanji's shirt clutched tightly in her hand.


End file.
